Wed. 26 Nov. 2014 Weather:-16 Degrees/Sunny/Rain
Barcelona 7:00  13:00h 6h
Berthing at 7am and departing at 1pm really means a maximum of 5 hours on shore as we do not get off the ship until at least half an hour after arrival and we have to be back on board half an hour before cast off so that does not leave much time to go and explore especially as we berthed at Terminal B here in Barcelona.
The day started of nice and sunny but as we were getting of the shuttle bus that took us to the front of the harbour it started to sprinkle so only...

Tues. 25Nov. 2014 Weather:-18Degrees/Sunny
4thday at sea
After a nice sunset last night my boss has declared today as an official “Rostered Day Off” for tourists and as I do not want to cross swords with the ‘Powers That Be’ in that union so I have to sign off for the day, Goodbye, see you tomorrow in Barcelona

An uneventful flight to Barcelona and we arrive at hotel by 1 pm. Arriving at the same time as the first wave of the Travel with Alan group, but no Gord and Dora. We here there is a second group about 5:30 so we decide to just leave a message that we have headed to La Rambla. Turns out Gord & Dora are not even on the list so we assume they are at the other hotel. After emails back and forth to Helen, Gord’s sister back in Oliver, we find out we have really had another ‘lost in translation’ as they are arriving tomorrow am and going directly...

Hola for the last time from Spain!
And so it has come to this - the circle of my trip is all but complete and this will be my lucky last post. What can I say? I´ve walked the length and breadth of every museum and gallery that I could find, I´ve navigated the back streets of major cities (some intentionally, some accidently and some I wish I hadn´t), I´ve mastered the Metro system in London, the trams in Amsterdam and the long distance trains of Spain. I´ve used and tried to use a multitude of broken languages (sometimes horribly mangled...

Hola!
This is quite challenging typing this up on a Spanish keyboard because every word I write gets a red line under it - so if I get spelling mistakes I have no help from this computer!
Wow! What a day for talking! It started off on a bus tour I did to Sagrada Familia and Gaudi country. I met a child/adolescent psychologist from Tasmania here for a conference about ADHD and doing some sight seeing. He was a very interesting guy and he hasn´t spoken to anyone in English for a while either so we both talked each other´s ear off for most of...

This is just a quick one to let you know my iPad was knocked off today so if you get a strange email from me it´s not me! More later if I can access the internet for longer. Adios! xoxoxo
Don´t worry, emails from this site will be ok and I can use the hotel computer!

Barcelona, here I come (again)!
I've left Amsterdam, navigated the French rail system and successfully swapped trains in Paris and now I'm sitting here on a very comfortable train too Barcelona, but it wasn't easy. First I had to overcome the ticket/information guy. He looked a bit like Angry Anderson on a bad day and was in no mood for non French speaking tourists despite my formidable charm. You'd think a prerequisite for working at a 'help' desk was that you liked to 'help' people - instead this guy looked like he wanted to 'kill'...

I have just spent 5 wonderful days in Barcelona with 9 others in our travel group of 13. We stayed fairly central to the hub of Barcelona (Catalonia Sq) in 2 apartments. Enjoyed the opportunity of getting to know the other women better although still battling extreme tiredness ensuring all done at home before I left.
To orientate ourselves - Mary, Sue & I had organised a 2 day hop on/hop off bus with the idea that the first day we get a general feel & orientation for Barcelona. The second day was to return to places where we really wanted...

My hotel room is not what I expected but it is exceptionally quiet considering it's located on the busiest street in Barcelona and I did ask for a quiet room. It's the smallest hotel room that I have ever been in (more like a cell really) and the only window opens out to a closed brick walled area. On the plus side it's very clean, good shower and when I turn out the lights I really can't tell if it's daytime or nighttime. I hardly hear the air conditioner and the bed is perfect - an excellent first night's sleep, a big breakfast and I'm...

Well I'm finally here and it's a wonderful 27C! I love this temperature even when I'm walking around not being able to find my hotel! It all seemed so easy when I looked at google maps back home but when you throw in 5000 (at least) tourists and locals going in all directions and street signs that are not always obvious and a hotel that's not on any map and it becomes quite a challenge. Fortunately for me I seem to have my share of 'Hall luck' (thank you great, great, great grandfather Hall for saving that leprechaun) and I stumbled across...

Our ship docked at 5:00 am in Barcelona Spain. We had a driver scheduled to pick us up for 2 hours of site seeing on our way to the hotel. Ivan, our driver, picked us at the terminal at 10:15. He drove us by the Columbus statue, the music hall, Arc de Triomf, Parc Guell, Familia Sagrada, the olympic stadium and other sites before taking us to our hotel. He stopped several times for us to get out, walk around, and take pictures.
We arrived at our hotel H10 Casanova at 12:30. Our room was not ready, so we used the computer there to buy and...

We were met on our arrival in Barcelona by Pepe and Erika, long time friends of ours from Denise's days in the Congo, and with whom we spent a few brief days before going on to Mark's and Valerie's place just an hour south of the city.
Whether it was on the porch in the evenings with cava, or at the breakfast table in the mornings, or enjoying tapas or a meal at a nearby hillside cafe or at spot in the city center, or walking the narrow streets and courtyards of the old sector of Barcelona city, it was a beautiful time of reflecting on the...